31 Days of Reviews, Day 8: Jack Black Moisture Therapy Lip Balm

Hello everyone and welcome to day 8 of my review challenge! Today I was supposed to review a lip balm, but there are two that I would really like to mention, the Jack Black Moisture Therapy Lip Balm, and the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments. However, I wanted to do lip swatches for the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments, but I just haven’t had time to do that yet. Therefore, today I am just going to review the Jack Black Moisture Therapy Lip Balm, and tomorrow I will post a “Part 2 of Day 8” for the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments, with lip swatches, along with Day 9’s review.

Here are all the different flavours that I own of both the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments (Berry, Cherry, Passion, Tulip, Petal, and Nude) and the Jack Black Moisture Therapy Lip Balms (Grapefruit, Shea Butter and Black Tea).

Packaging and First Impressions

This lip balm comes in a squeezy tube with that has a slanted oval shape applicator. This makes it really easy to apply the balm accurately. I absolutely despise (I am not over exaggerating) lip balms that you have to dip your finger into, so I really like this packaging. These lip balms are offered in four different flavours at Sephora Canada, however I just learned that there are even more flavours than that! I’m excited now, except I haven’t quite figured out how to get these additional flavours. The Jack Black website does not ship to Canada (why am I not at all surprised, yet surprised all the same. How are there US companies that do not ship to Canada yet?! So bizarre, and they are missing out on a huge profit margin).

Here are the flavours that Sephora Canada carries.Here are the flavours that Sephora US carries. *NOTICE* the different name of the product! I talk about this in the Price and Quantity Section.

The consistency of this lip balm is emollient but not thick. Above in those Sephora pictures, it says that it has a matte finish, but I don’t think that’s true. However, it isn’t overly glossy. This is supposed to be made for men after all, who don’t typically want glossy lips. It is really comfortable to wear during the day time and night time. The scented flavours that I own are not too overly scented (Grapefruit and Black Tea & Blackberry), however the scent of the Black Tea & Blackberry one actually did make me feel a little sick when I first started using it. I might just be sensitive to this scent for some reason, but I’m still going to use all of this lip balm! It doesn’t bother me so much now that I have been using it for over a month.

This lip balm is priced at $10.50 CAD ($7.50 USD) and it has 7 grams (0.25 oz) of product at all four retailers mentioned above. What was a bit weird when looking at all of the different retailers, was that the name of the product seemed to change between Canada and the USA. The lip balm that I have access to in Canada is called Moisture Therapy, whereas the lip balm that is accessible in the US at Sephora US, Ulta, and on the Jack Black Website is called Intense Therapy.. That weirds me out a bit. I think this may have to do with some controversy that happened a while ago, Christine on Temptalia talks about it, where not all of the ingredients were listed on the original lip balm packaging, which was required by FDA regulations, so they had to repackage. So I guess the US is getting these new balms, whereas Canada is getting the old leftovers? Great thanks? This is all conjecture though, and may not be true. What is not conjecture, is what Christine describes in the link above.

Anyways, to compare the cost, the typical most inexpensive lip balms that people buy are often vaseline products, Chapstick, Carmex and many many more which are all around a couple of dollars. One tiny step above that in terms of price I think would be Burt’s Bees and EOS lip balms, which typically ~$5 CAD. Then there are the Fresh Sugar Tinted Lip Treatments, which I will talk about tomorrow, which are priced at $29 CAD ($24 USD) for 4.3 grams (0.15 oz) of product. Here is the cost comparison, organized from best deal to worst deal:

+ Vitamin E and anti-oxidants which help protect lips from damage caused by UV-induced free radicals.”

These lip balms are also formulated without parabens, sulfates or phthalates.

Performance

For most of my life, I have been a lip balm kind of girl. For the last 7 years I had been using Burt’s Bee’s lip balm, and that was about it. About two years ago, my lips suddenly underwent a change where they were extremely dry and flaky all the time. I hadn’t changed any medication or my diet, it just happened. ***Side thought here: Burt’s Bees was bought by Clorox in 2007, so I am wondering if maybe the ingredients in Burt’s Bee’s underwent a grade change in the last couple of years, which is something that commonly happens when a smaller company is bought out by a larger giant to turn a greater profit. While the ingredients in the list may stay the same, the ones being used could have been replaced with a lower grade “equivalent”, and maybe this resulted in the product being less effective for me ***. At first, it was extremely frustrating because I had always been a habitual lip balm apply-er; it’s not like I was going on for long periods of time without anything on my lips. However, the Burt’s Bee’s lip balms were just not cutting it anymore, for some unknown reason. Finally, after months of absolute frustration and no improvement, I went to Sephora for some help. They suggested this Jack Black lip balm that I am now reviewing, and it has really changed everything for me.

With my dry lips I couldn’t wear any lip products. I couldn’t wear lipstick, even lipgloss went on weird over my textured lips. I was so limited for many months and it was really frustrating, for a person who likes to look nice and who loves makeup. After two days of using this Jack Black lip balm, my lips were fine again, totally hydrated, and I cannot express how thankful I was and still am for this product. I use this product daily, whether I am wearing other lip products on top or not. This balm works great underneath lipstick, and absolutely saves you after a long day of wearing dehydrating lip products. If you wear it under liquid lipstick, it will make them no longer be transfer-proof, however, my main concern is lip comfort. I cannot stand dry lips. If I have dry lips, I immediately start biting them and cannot stop.

This lip balm is relatively long-lasting depending on what you’re drinking/eating. I reapply every 2-3 hours if I am wearing it just on its own.

One really great aspect about this lip balm is that it has a SPF of 25! And it absolutely does protect your lips from the sun. When I was in the Bahamas at the beginning of this year, I made the mistake of not wearing it for a couple of hours when I was on the beach, and my lips got burned for the first time in my life. It was very weird, they looked fine but the texture of them felt bizarre when I rubbed them together. Had I been actually wearing that lip balm, my lips would have been fine. I always make sure that I wear this lip balm when I am out in the sun and tanning because I do not want to experience that again!

Final Thoughts

I love this lip balm and I will never stop purchasing it so long as it is available to me. I don’t think I will repurchase the Black Tea & Blackberry flavour since the scent of it makes me feel a little sick at times, but the Grapefruit and Shea Butter flavours are great. They both have the same effectiveness at keeping your lips hydrated. If you want no scent, go for the Shea Butter. I know that these are comparatively quite a bit more expensive than your typical $1-2 lip balm or chap stick, however in the scheme of things, $10 for ultimate lip comfort is so worth it in my opinion. These tubes usually last me 1-2 months, so $10 every 1-2 months is really not a big deal to me.

Have you tried these lip balms?

Make sure you tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of my lip balm reviews, and for day 9 of my 31 days of reviews!

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Originator of SUPERNOVABEAUTY. In order to escape the 9-5 life of a graduate student slave, I have devoted myself deeply to beauty products. I am very passionate about trying the latest and the greatest and can definitely say that I am an addict. At all hours of the day you can find me watching beauty tutorials and reviews by some of youtube's most influential, such as Tati, Kathleenlights, Roxette Arisa, jeffreestar and JAMbeauty89.